A Stranger's Journey
by Eazy E 4 life
Summary: What if Leon never went to Spain? What if Ashley had to make it out of the Los Illuminados village without any help? Well almost any... Read and Review, please, I am begging you to...
1. Chapter 1

**A Stranger's Journey**

The numbing cold of the night had crept in early. Inside the church, the only source of heat was the row of candles that had been placed on both side walls of the entrance hall. But in the small cell where a very special prisoner was kept, nothing was that warm.

Ashley held her arms around her, trying to keep the little warmth she still had for as long as she could. It had been over six hours she had been locked up in the hole, and since that, she hadn't seen anybody. She was afraid. She was scared to death.

How it happened, she wasn't fully sure. But she knew one thing. They had kidnapped her.

She was not attached to nothing in the room, but the sturdy door was locked, and the walls around were very thick, and made out of brick. There was no way she was making it out of the cell that way.

She sat in a corner, waiting for her pending doom. Something that Ashley never could have predicted.

A loud thud was heard, and the door's handle blew up, leaving a cloud of dust. Before Ashley could reach the door, fast footsteps where heard from the other side, and then the sound of a door closing.

Ashely reached for the hole left where the handle used to be, and pulled the door open. She looked around, but her mysterious savior had disappeared. She scanned the room for a few seconds. After she was sure that no one guarded the route, she got down the ladder, and walked to the main room.

The benches were covered with a thick layer of dust, and of something that had a somehow different texture. Some sort of slime. Disgusted more than intrigued, Ashley turned toward the altar and walked to it.

On the altar, an open book laid. It looked much like a larger version of the bible, handwritten with a remarkable calligraphy. Only, after a quick overlook, she noticed that the texts were totally different from what the Christian bible told. She didn't bothered reading further.

The only exit was through the front door. Ashley walked back to the front, and placed her hand on the door's knob. Not a sound came from outside. It seemed a safe route. Anyway, it was the only one she had.

Outside, the cemetery was stretching downhill toward a path in the forest. Darkness covered it, along with a light fog. It did not looked like a suitable escape route. Another footpath was disposed next to the church, and basically led to the opposite direction as the cemetery.

Ashley thought that the cemetery was not a good place for her to be. She wanted to get out there. She walked along the path to the side. The path was continuing on some sort of boardwalk over the lake. However, the roughly made passageway had several gaps in it, and threatened to give way at any moment.

Ashley looked back at the church, as a lightning stroke nearby. She trembled in fear. She had to get away from that building. The further away she was, the best it would be.

She walked on the passage until the first gap. The space was of about two feet, and she knew she would be able to make it rather easily. She had always had good marks at school in this type of exercises. She tried to convince herself that it was not different. But she knew it was. God only knew what lurked in the dark waters of the lake. If she fell in that, she might as well have been dead.

''Come on Ashley, you're able...'' she told herself.

She made a step forward and jumped. Before she could realize what she had done, she landed on the other side of the boardwalk. She kept going until the second gap. She die the same thing as with the first one, and so on until she reached solid ground.

A large gate made of dark wood logs stood before her, impressive by it's height.

''Locked...'' She whispered as she tried it.

She was down to one option. There was a ladder further to the side, next to the gate. She could only hope that it led to the other side.

She climbed down the ladder slowly. Inside the cavern, the air was abnormally fresh, and some candles were lit. It was warm, and nothing was moving. However, a corner of the cave was unlit.

Ashley moved toward a bunch of crates, and checked them out to find some sort of weapon. But the crates were filled fine black powder, and no possible weapons. By examining the substance from a closer eye, Ashley identified it as gunpowder. But she was anything but sure about it. She just knew that she should not mess around with those boxes.

Suddenly, something moved in the darker corner of the cave. Ashley turned around nervously, lacking anything to defend herself.

A human figure got out of the shadows. But it wasn't quite friendly. Ashley could tell by the large cleaver the man held in his right hand. Depending on the lighting, she thought she could see blood on the knife, but she didn't matter. The man himself was dressed in villager clothing covered in dirt, and perhaps blood.

The guy walked in her direction, threatening. She was scared to death. By reflex, she lifted her hand, trying to block the large weapon being swung at her. She felt death coming before the time. At that very point, she thought of her father. What the hell was he doing now?

She had given up, and was waiting for the blade to cut her head off, when she heard a loud detonation. She felt something on her arm, in front of her. She opened her eyes, but the assailant was nowhere to be seen. She looked down and saw his body, a rather large hole in his chest.

She looked at her arm, and saw some blood and flesh dripping from it. She wiped it, trying not to scream. Then, she turned to the direction where the shot seemed to have come from.

A rather short person, probably a man, was draped under what looked like a cape, and had his whole head covered with some sort of clothe. The clothes of the man looked dirty, and he held a shinning revolver in his hands, still smoking.

''Can I help you stranger?''

**_Hope you like it. It is my first story taking the real Resident Evil characters, and I wanted to give Ashley a role in which she does more than just say ''Leon help!''. Leave me review, I alway reply to reviews, unless you just say ''nice''. Thanks for reading anyway. _**


	2. Chapter 2

Wh... who are you?'' Ashley asked the man.

The man stayed silent a while.

''I don't believe in using names...'' The man said, putting an emphasis on the word names. His voice was in a sort a melancholic tone, as if he was reminiscing great happiness now far gone.

Ashley tried to calm herself down a bit. She was lost in this strange village, filled with crazed people trying to take her life away, and this man did not looked any closer to the reality Ashley had been used to.

But he had saved her, so his intentions must've been different from the other people in this village.

''Anyway... Thanks you for saving... me...''

''That's nothing...'' The man answered simply, his voice rough.

''By the way... my name is Ashley...''

''Names only make us attach to people... And when people are close, it makes it harder when they leave...''

Ashley stayed silent at the comment. He was not wrong. She did not wanted to say that he was right, but he could not be wrong. She pushed those thoughts aside, and concentrated on the moment.

''Would you... have... a gun... for me?'' She asked shyly.

''You've come to the right place stranger...''

Ashley followed the man as he walked to a large crate in the corner where he had come from at the start. He opened the lid of the crate, and grinned widely at the impressive collection of firearms. Handguns, shotguns, rifles, even grenades where stacked neatly inside the wooden container.

Then Ashley noticed something while the man was looking inside the crate. He had several small pockets on his coat-like clothe, filled with something shinny that looked much like old gold coins used as money a long time ago. He must've been a merchant.

But Ashley had not money to pay him.

''This should suit you...''

The merchant took a brand new pistol, known as a Punisher, out of the crate, and handed it to the President's daughter. She was reticent to take hold of such a violent and ruthless object, but she needed it to survive. It was her very way of defending herself against those crazy villagers that had kidnapped her.

She grabbed the pistol, and tried to familiarize with it. The merchant got up, and walked behind Ashley. He placed his hands on hers, in a sort of paternal way, and helped her positioning the gun right. While he did that, Ashley noticed his hand were unusually warm. Maybe it was only because she had pictured the man as cold and ruthless, which he obviously wasn't. But then she noticed something else. A cold sensation on a part of his hand, which confirmed being a hand ring. A small gold band he had on his middle finger. Ashley was dragged out of her thoughts by the merchant speaking.

''First you'll need a clip of bullets... luckily, there's one inside the gun already.''

She nodded.

''Then, you'll need to cock the gun so the first bullet goes into the cannon... Like this...'' he said while helping Ashley doing it.

''But... do I need to cock it between shot?''

The merchant smiled at the comment.

''Maybe if we had been a hundred years ago... That's why automatics were invented...''

''So I only need to cock it at the first shot...''

''After each reload.''

''Great... Thanks...''

He explained some stuff about the safety lock, and about reloading, giving her two more clips.

''You have a lot of guns here... is there some sort of resistance?''

''Was...'' The merchant said, the same sad tone in his voice as when he talked about names.

Ashley stayed silent a moment, and then thanked the merchant once more, feeling that talking about this would get nowhere. The more she talked to him, the more he talked back, and the more he seemed like a normal person. It was surprising that he had no accent. Ashley didn't know where she was, but the villager did not talk English, so she believed she was either in Europe or Latin America. And in both cases, finding someone with no accent in a such reclusive community was very surprising.

''How much do I owe you?'' Ashley asked, blushing slightly.

''Nothing'' The merchant said, simply.

''But...''

Shouts in Spanish were heard in the back ground.

''They found us...'' Ashley panicked.

The man drew his handgun, and walked back to the entrance. He climbed up the ladder, and closed the trap up there.

''That won't hold them off for long.'' He stated.

The merchant ran to the other end of the cave, and motioned Ashley to follow him. As she got closer, Ashley noticed a small river was flowing within the cave, going further on both sides, in small tunnels.

A rather small wooden boat was attached to the ground with a cord and a wooden pike.

''Go in there... The current will guide you...''

''But... what about you?''

''I'll be fine.''

He grinned once more, and clutched his handgun tightly. He untied the rope, and the boat was set free. The fast current took it in the front tunnel, and downwards to an unknown destination.

The last thing Ashley saw was the merchant raising his gun. Then he was out of sight. A few shot echoed in the cave, and then it was all silent. The current came faster, and Ashley had to grab the boat's sides to stay on it. One thought raced in her mind.

''When was this going to stop?''

**Okay, this was short, but from the next one, I'll try to make them longer. Anyway, if I make them short, I'll update more often, so it's the same after all... Hope you had a good time reading, and leave me a review, whether you like it or not. **


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

It blacked out. Everything was dark, and Ashley's muscles did not respond. She could not move, as if she had been paralyzed. In the total darkness, she panicked, unsure whether it was her who was plunged in the dark, or if she simply had her eyes shut. She couldn't feel anything. It was like her whole body had become numb, as if she had a general anesthesia. She knew it wasn't that...

Suddenly, a sharp pain hit the back of her neck, and her lungs seemed to burn from inside. The numbness went away in a matter of seconds. The first thing she felt was the cold. Then she realized the sensation was liquid, as if she was surrounded by water. She opened her eyes, and saw the rocky bottom of the river. She tried to lift her head out of the water that was suffocating her, but she was not able. She felt like her body was weighting five times it's usual weight. She placed her arms on the bottom, ignoring the pain caused by the sharp stones underwater, and lifted herself above the water limit.

She took a deep breath, her lungs burning as if fire had been set deep inside. She sat against the wall to catch her breath, her whole body trembling because of the situation she was in. She felt a presence behind her, and turned around. But there was nothing but a stone wall.

The feeling had now transfered to the other side. Ashley turned around several times, the paranoid feeling of being watched only growing stronger. But she was alone in the small cave. The echo of her heavy breathing was the only audible noise in the narrow tunnel.

She tried to forget about the disturbing feeling, and examined what route she could take to exit this creepy cave.

By the way she had come, it was only a fast current river, coming from uphill. Not only was it useless to go back, but it was impossible.

Further down, the same situation. Only, a narrow pathway followed the river, to the side. Ashley had to walk on this path less than one foot large.

She set foot one it, and started walking nervously. She didn't want to fall back into the cold water.

As she progressed deeper inside the cave, the feeling of being observed slowly changed to a feeling of being touched. But, to the numerous times Ashley had turned around to make sure she was not followed, it was only her imagination.

It was only then that Ashley checked her waistband to see if she still had the gun. She smiled in relief as she realized it was still there. Wet, of course. Ashley had no idea if the rounds would work after they had dried a bit, but she had no other way of protecting herself.

The dark cavern started to get more and more bright, until the beams of the moon cracked into by the exit. Ashley ran for the hatch, and got out. She couldn't stand this deep cavern. She was a little claustrophobic to be fair.

To the magnificent light produced by the full moon, Ashley felt slightly more relaxed. It was late, very late. And the night was dark like she had never seen. She was used to the nights in big cities where her father lived, notably Washington. Cities where light was in sight 24 hours a day, where total darkness did not exist. But in this lost countryside, the only light of the moon seemed very bright in comparison to the forest that Ashley had found herself in.

She was in a dense forest, and not much was in sight. Ashley could not see much further than two or three feet, and trees blocked her sight in many places.

She was afraid. But she had to forget about her fear, and keep on moving.

Raising her gun in aiming stance, Ashley noticed that she trembled. She could only pray she would not be forced to shoot.

I took her several other seconds to find the strength to make a first step in the pitch darkness.

Now, Ashley felt both observed and touched, almost as if someone invisible was leaning against her. But, looking around, she once more realized that no one was around. A burning feeling hit her from inside.

She was now even deeper in mystery. It was almost as if the thing observing her was... inside. As if it recorded her every movement, spying on her, taking control one cell at a time.

She was getting paranoid, all alone, in this dark forest, with no escape route in sight, or even in mind.

A roar was heard in background, faint and distant. Ashley panicked, and ran for the other end of the forest, not looking back. Without thinking, she changed direction several times, and ended up lost even deeper in the forest than at the start.

Having lost sight of the entry point, Ashley had no choice but to keep going forward, progressing in the dark like a ship without it's radar.

Up on a nearby hill, a man slid a bolt into his crossbow. A small metal click was heard, but Ashley did not notice the light sound, the noise of her heavy breath covering it.

The man clicked his crossbow back, and slid his long finger on the trigger. The cold metal was comforting to the shooter. At least something was familiar to him in this lost country. The man silently actioned the trigger, and the silent sound of the bolt flying through the trees cut the deep silence that enveloped Ashley.

_**I know, it's pretty short, but this is like an intermission, leading to some more consistant part of the story. In short, next chap will be longer... Thanks for reading...**_


End file.
